"Hurricane" is a male vocal rock/blues song with a Latin feel. Larry Dillard wrote the tune, sang and played the guitars. Matt Linsin provided the drums and percussion. Shadi Frick played the keyboards and bass, and also arranged and recorded the track at Low Key Studios in Carbondale, IL.

Reviewed By: Marty Peters

Rating: 5

Recording: This month's Spotlight is a slinky groove piece full of outstanding sounds from, wait for it, real players playing non-virtual instruments. Schweet! While we applaud and encourage all of you one man/woman recordists out there, it is refreshing to hear it "old school" from time to time -- check out Dave Grohl's outstanding "Sound City" documentary for confirmation! Larry and the gang have given us some mighty fine "tone-age" with their submission, so let's put our ears to the tracks and examine what's on offer, shall we?

The first thing that impresses is the rhythm section, complete with the best bass tone that we have heard in ages. '68 Telecaster Bass through a miked-up Ampeg B-15 amp... Get outa town! This is THE sound, friends, and it's gonna take one hell of a plug-in to convince me otherwise.

As for the drums, we love the organic snap to the snare and the side stick is equally impressive. We should also mention the relationship between the bass and kick drum. Too often this is where frequency masking occurs in mixes, particularly when the bass is this robust. Wisely the guys tucked the kick drum slightly behind the bass here, avoiding that confrontation.

Moving on, we also dug all of the keyboard sounds presented here, with special honors going to that ELP synth sound (love the 10-second lick between 2:34 and 2:44!). Adding to the goodness, we found the lead vocal to be nicely tracked, minus any artifact, while the percussion was treated with skill in its support role. Good stuff!

Suggestions: Not everyone has the time, resources, or available musicians to create music in this fashion. That said, great tone is great tone, and this is a fine piece to emulate in that regard, irrespective of one's modus operandi.

Marty Peters is a recording engineer and producer with a studio in the Buffalo, NY area. Now in his seventeenth year of reviewing Readers' Tapes, he still enjoys the wide variety of musical styles and executions he hears in your submissions... so keep those songs coming!